Our design briefing was to carefully translate the original design into a modern interpretation, while incorporating an Alfa Romeo 4C the rolling chassis. This made it possible to convert a stock donor car into something exclusive, limited and timeless…. just like the beautiful original 33! Designer Ugur Sahin, left.

A few options were considered for naming the concept, as the rich history of the Alfa Romeo brand involves many great personalities and achievements. Then after doing some deeper research I found out about the racing legend Tazio Nuvolari, nicknamed Nivola.

He epitomized courage and daring and for 30 years he amazed the racing world with his exploits on both two and four wheels resulting in several championship titles in motorcycle as well as sports car championships. For Alfa Romeo he won several world championship titles, a few Mille Miglia and Targa Florio races and, to top it off, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Alfa Romeo.

Personally I was very impressed with following story of the legendary Nivola. At the Monza Grand Prix for motorcycles he crashed during practice. This resulted in two broken legs. After doctors put plaster casts on both legs he was told that it would be at least one month before he could walk again let alone race motorcycles. The next day he started the race having himself tied to his bike. He required his mechanics to hold him upright at the start of the race and to catch him at the end. The legend of Tazio Nuvolari, below, began that day when he won that race!

As I admire people who fight hard for achieving personal goals in life, I decided to name the Alfa Romeo Nivola in honor of the great Tazio Nuvolari.

The development of the Nivola came to life after I visited the Pebble Beach Concours last year in Monterey, CA. I was so impressed with the Best of Show winning Alfa 33 Stradale that I decided to try and pay homage to the Alfa Romeo brand as well as the original 33 Stradale by creating a modern interpretation of the original design.

As it would have been too easy just to copy the original closely, I decided to go the hard way and develop a production ready concept, based on an existing Alfa Romeo chassis. Because of the nimble size as well as the ultra-light weight of the original vehicle, it was only common sense to develop a design based on the Alfa Romeo 4C underpinnings. That created a huge challenge, as the proportions and “hard points” of the 4C chassis are quite different than the original Alfa 33 Stradale. In order to get closer to the proportions of the 33, the rear of the car was extended in order to create sleek rear fenders that extend all the way back to the edge of the rear end.

The Nivola concept design has been entirely developed from a stock Alfa Romeo 4C chassis scan so if there is a healthy demand, a very limited and exclusive production will be arranged with either carbon fiber or aluminum body panels.

For more information on the Nivola and other designs and concepts, please visit http://www.ugursahindesign.com/